Best Membership WordPress Plugin for Subscription Sites

If you’re looking to build a login-based exclusive website, you can do it by using WordPress membership plugins.

Have no idea what a membership plugin is? It helps you create a login to access the content. Membership site plugins can help you build unlimited subscription levels for free and paid membership plans. If you’re not selling products but exclusive content, then you can use the best membership WordPress plugin.

Table of Contents

Reasons to Use Membership WordPress Plugin

Having a membership brings you more than just a steady stream of revenue, it also helps in making your website reputable and credible. Building a membership website is similar to building an eCommerce website. You need to offer a range of features and functionality to the users and to the team who’s building the website. Utilizing WordPress development services can ensure that your membership site is robust and feature-rich.

The best membership plugin WordPress can help you take care of both sections. Here’s the list of features you can expect from the best membership WordPress plugins:

Set User Permission – This allows you to publish exclusive content for those who are members of the website. You can also publish exclusive content based on the level of memberships.
Collect Membership Payment: Some plugins also allow you to maintain payments of the subscribers. Existing members and new users will be able to renew their subscriptions or sign up for new ones.
Distribute Coupon Codes: Some of the best membership WordPress plugins will help you increase sales by distributing coupon codes.
Reminders: In case your members forget about it, the plugins can send automated reminders of renewing their memberships.
Control Content Drip: Helps you maintain user interest by publishing content at ideal intervals.
Multi-Level Subscription Plans: Helps you offer multi-leveled content or offer a membership-free trial to new users.

Best Membership Plugin WordPress to use for Free

Before you install just any other plugin, you need to compare them first. Here are some of the best and free membership plugins to use:

1. Ultimate Member

Plugin Downloads: 200,000+
Rating: 4.5/5
Best features: Drag-and-drop contact form builder, member directories, and developer-friendly UI.
Price: Freemium

Ultimate Member is an incredible plugin with a range of features. It allows you to personalize membership registration and login pages.

It servers a lot of features such as building a membership system, creating a job board functionality, and ForumWP integration. All of these functions make it easy for you to expand your membership site’s features, and also offer benefits to the users.

As the tool is not completely free, you can upgrade to the extensions pass a plan for just $249 per year. Doing this will allow you to get access to real-time features:

Real-time notifications
Private messaging feature
Member bookmarks

2. ARMember

Plugin Downloads: 5,000+
Rating: 4/5
Best features: Unlimited membership levels, email notifications, and membership setup wizard.
Price: Freemium

If you’re planning to build a whole array of membership websites, then ARMember is one of the best plugins you can use. We’ve put it in 2^ndposition on our list because it lets you create unlimited membership levels with a trial period and allows you to set up multiple payment cycles.

Plus, ARMember lets you create dripping content for members based on a set schedule. You can even earn revenue from guests by using content restrictions and pay-per-post features.

The plugin also supports payment gateway integrations with PayPal, Authorize.net, and Stripe. If you want, you can also receive payments using local gateways offered by WooCommerce.

While the plugin is free and open-sourced, you can get its lifetime license for a single website for $49. Getting a license will provide you access to premium features:

Social media configurations
Multiple memberships subscriptions
Developer API

3. Simple Membership

Plugin Downloads: 40,000+
Rating: 4.5/5
Best features: Unlimited membership access levels, multiple payment gateways, and teaser campaigns.
Price: Free

Similar to its name, Simple Membership is a super simple-to-use membership plugin for WordPress sites. There are tons of features that make it worthy of being one of the best membership plugins WordPress.

Simple Membership allows you to build unlimited subscription levels for a free and paid membership. It offers flexibility in billing with the help of billing apps as well, you can sell digital content like online courses for a one-time price or recurring payment.

The tool is so beginner-friendly, and experienced web developers can still utilize it to their needs.

One of the best things about this plugin is:

WordPress theme compatibility
Member filter
Translation ready
Custom post-type protection

4. WP Private Content Plus

Plugin Downloads: 5,300+
Rating: 3.5/5
Best features: Multiple content restriction types, global post, and page protection, password-based global site protection.
Price: Freemium

WP Private Content Plus is an incredible solution for making sure your website’s content is protected. We love this plugin mostly for its content restriction feature, allowing you to limit the user’s access to specific content pages.

The plugin also helps you build your member profile pages and offers multiple features that you can add to the page.

With the free version of the tool, you can take advantage of WooCommerce integration. If you want to build an eCommerce store with membership-only access, this is a great feature.

Building a membership website is even easier with a private dashboard feature, and it allows you to communicate privately and share files directly with a user.

5. Restricted User Access

Plugin Downloads: 290,000+
Rating: 4.5/5
Best features: Unlimited membership levels, drip content, and WordPress user access control
Price: Free

The final best membership WordPress plugin on our list is Restricted User Access. From the number of downloads, you can see that it’s a loved tool. You get all the features for free that aren’t available in paid tools.

You can use this plugin to tease exclusive content and build custom messages for non-members to subscribe. Regardless of your installed plugins or themes, Restrict User Access will make sure it runs smoothly and without any issues.

Most features offered by the tool is free, but you can get add-ons and boost the functionality. The prices for add-ons range between $29-$79/per year.

6. Jotform WordPress Forms

Plugin Downloads: 20,000+

Rating: 3.5/5

Best features: drag-and-drop builder, integrations with payment gateways, 110+ form templates, embed form plug-in

Price: Free

If you’re looking for a user-friendly tool to power your business, Jotform has everything you need. It’s a great plugin tool that allows you to create custom online forms seamlessly integrate with your company and workflow. It streamlines your data collection tasks without needing to write a single word of code!

You can customize your documents using ready-made templates and the powerful drag-and-drop builder. It allows you to get creative with countless advanced form fields, widgets, and integrations When you’re done, you can easily embed your forms onto your website or just share it with a link. You can also send confirmation emails or scheduled reminders to your customers, clients or patients.
Jotform’s free plan includes all of the features that come with a form limit.

7. SureMembers

Plugin Downloads: Undisclosed

Rating: 4.9/5

Best features: Membership levels, content drips, and simple setup and management

Price: Premium

SureMembers is a membership plugin that makes it easy to create successful membership websites. With a simple setup wizard, your site can be ready in minutes. You can easily add different membership levels, connect payment gateways, and set access rules.

SureMembers supports features like drip content and user roles, letting you customize who sees what. Integrated with SureCart for payments, you can even add an online store. Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or managing many sites, SureMembers offers an easy solution for flexible membership management.